Back in the mid 90’s I read a book written in the early 90’s that basically outlined a dozen or so potential war scenarios around the globe from 1990 to 2000. Each chapter was about a specific conflict that could erupt and gave both the background as to why it might ignite, and then an actual breakdown of what potentially could happen and the winners/losers of the war in both the region as well as on a global scale.
Among the scenarios I read was a United States lead U.N. deployment to South Africa in the aftermath of a Civil War, a regional conflict between two Central American countries that spilled over into Mexico, and a war among the various member nations of the new Russian Federation over territory claims.
Does anybody know this book, or any other books similar that are basically small scale examinations of potential future wars in detail?
The military historian James Dunnigan is known for the genre you’re asking about. I forget how many editions of, “A Quick and Dirty Guide to War,” he and his co-authors have done—I think they’re up to 4 now—but that book is pretty much what yours looking for. A bunch of potential future conflicts, with a brief setting of the players, their grievances, and ability to mess with each other, along with other entities that might get involved. Cynical, pithy writing style. Were it not for the size of the books, they’d be great for brief reading in the bathroom.
Sure he’s not looking for “A Quick and Dirty Guide to War?” “How to Make War” is more of an analysis of the historical statistics of modern warfare, and how to apply them to potential wars in a sort of predictive fashion.
It’s not quite the same as what you’re looking for, but General Sir John Winthrop Hackett published The Third World War: August 1985 in 1978 and a follow-up, The Third World War: The Untold Story in 1982. Both describe a massive war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact that would have broken out in 1985.
He describes some variations, the use of nukes, some military action in space and – interesting to me in light of what Reagan actually would do in 1983 – a US invasion of Grenada.
Yeah, I mentioned Quick and Dirty in my post at first. But then I thought How To, in the later editions, also went into potential future conflicts. And I didn’t see at first that he’d updated Quick and Dirty, whereas I remember reading versions of what Asuka was looking for, that were past the original’s publication date.
But you’re right: your description of the differences is how I remember the two books as well.
I just don’t recall “How to Make War” having analyses of potential flashpoints- plenty of analysis of the potential actors and their equipment, training, etc… but not of the actual potential conflicts.